The purpose of this study was to contribute to a base of information about adult offspring who reside in the parental home, with particular emphasis on intergenerational relationships. The variables investigated included intimacy with parents, individuation from family of origin, triangulation, intimidation, and personal authority. These were selected to provide a theoretical basis for an understanding of the relational dynamics within the parent-adult child household and of differentiation of the adult offspring in the study. Sixty-six adults living in their parents' homes participated in the study. Each completed five subscales from the Personal Authority in the Family System Questionnaire(PAFS-Q) and a demographic questionnaire. Demographic results indicated that moving home after a separation or divorce was not prevalent, even to receive assistance with child care. A greater proportion of females than males lived at home during the ages of 22-29, with proportions of females growing smaller until the ages of 40- 45, when the ratio became 50-50. Fewer than half of the respondents paid for rent and household expenses regularly, even with over 80% employed full time and over 68% earning $10,000.00 or more annually. Multivariate analyses revealed that these adult children reported significant degrees of intimacy and personal authority under conditions of satisfaction with the living arrangement, as well as significant levels of fusion in conjunction with both satisfaction and age being over forty. Intimidation was significantly less with those who have resided at home two to seven years, and greater with those who have lived in the home only one year. / Ph. D.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1986 D34 / Master of Arts / Communication Studies

This research study is qualitative exploratory in nature, trying to gain insight into integrated communication at Eskom. The study presents the methodology of the investigation, the analysis of the data, the findings as well as the conclusion and recommendations. Data collection techniques include an online self-administered questionnaire, structured questionnaire, focus group discussions and content analysis of the organisations’ publications. The population selected consists of Eskom communication managers and professionals, human resources personnel and project managers to establish the extent to which integrated communication is practised within Eskom. Finally, the research findings are discussed and further recommendations proposed. The findings show that Eskom communication is predominantly top-down with the divisions still working in silos. Furthermore, a measuring instrument developed to evaluate the extent of integrated communication as proposed by Du Plessis and Scoonraad in Barker and Angelopulo (2006) were found to be applicable to the Eskom situation. / Communication Science / M.A. (Specialisation in Organisational Communication Research and Practice)

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis examined 228 college students' reported use of relational maintenance behaviors and strategies and their reported perception of the degree of relational satisfaction and solidarity with the relational partners they chose to identify. The study gathered extensive data with the intention of primarily investigating the validity and reliability of measurement of relational maintenance behaviors across cultures with some attention to correlations between relationship maintenance behaviors, relationship satisfaction, and interpersonal solidarity. The study focused on refining previous measures of relationship maintenance behaviors in order to develop a comprehensive global measure. The study found that a linear combination of factors or relationship maintenance behaviors are related to relational satisfaction and interpersonal solidarity.

A few studies have examined the effects of a remote control tactile device (RCT) as an unobtrusive prompting method used to promote skills such as verbal initiations and play behaviors in children with autism. To date, however, no published studies have investigated the effects of the RCT as a consequence to increase and maintain conversation skills. This study was designed to determine whether the RCT, in conjunction with common training techniques (i.e. roleplays, visual feedback, and sibling coaching), could be used as a discrete and unobtrusive feedback system to promote conversation skills in high functioning children with autism. Results found that the RCT and training packages were effective in initially increasing rates of target responses. The effects however, did not always maintain with a return to baseline. Programming "naturally" maintaining communities of reinforcement was found to be a critical factor in the maintenance of the conversational responses.

We develop models for the spread of two opposing ideologies in a closed population based on epidemic models. Based on different interaction rules, we study deterministic and stochastic models of the problem. The goal of our work is to provide a tractable analytical framework for each situation, and to analyze the effect of different initial conditions on the proportion of the population affiliated with each ideology after a large time interval.